In the following essay, Ball comments on the ensuing debate over the meaning of “Kubla Khan,” particularly as it reflects on the past, present, and future of literary scholarship and textual interpretation.

We all know now that Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem “Kubla Khan” is a masterpiece. But how do we know this? And has it always been known?

“Kubla Khan” was first published in 1816 in a booklet that also contained “Christabel” and “The Pains of Sleep.” Looking back at the first reviews, it is clear that the poem's importance was at first in some doubt. The Monthly Review of January 1817 is typical—its review felt the poem was ‘below criticism'—and the opinion of the Critical Review of May 1816, in its entirety, was that it was ‘one of those pieces that can only speak for itself.’ As...